Many companies, e.g., telecommunications companies, global internet service providers, etc., utilize modular electronic equipment for communications and computing that may be placed in equipment cabinets/frames or blade servers and connected to other electronic equipment. The modular equipment may take the form of removable circuit cards disposed in a vertical orientation and supported by an electronics subrack within the equipment cabinet/frame. Electronic equipment generates heat when operated. If too much heat is generated the electronic equipment may not operate properly or there may be a risk of fire. Thus, equipment cabinets/frames require cooling.
Electronic equipments cabinets/frames rely on forced air convection and draw air in from the surrounding environment to cool the electronics. Currently, high heat dissipating cabinets/frames transfer their hot exhaust into the environment in which it is enclosed, e.g., a Central Office, a data center, or other enclosure housing electronic equipment cabinet/frames. Also, existing high heat dissipating solutions remove heat at a room level, i.e. the entire Central Office, data center, or other enclosure housing electronic equipment cabinets/frames. Disadvantageously, the entire equipment room ambient environment must be controlled, which may cause high levels of temperature stratification, i.e., an uneven distribution of temperature throughout the equipment room, which in turn increases cooling costs. Also disadvantageously, in some cases, equipment rooms are at their capacity for air conditioning units.
Extracting heat at a room level is not an effective method of removing extreme levels of thermal energy. Cabinets/frames are designed to intake a supply of cooling air just above the room floor, or at mid frame height. Low power cabinets/frames may often be placed directly in contact with high power cabinets/frames. Unevenly controlled air temperature causes “hot spots” in the room ambient air, especially near and around high energy electronic equipment. Disadvantageously, when uneven temperature distribution occurs within the room, high levels of recirculated heated air may occur, which may lead to premature failure of electronic equipment.